Development of a Web site for analysis of media content of public health issues

Behaviors modeled on television reflect society, and certain audiences (e.g., adolescents) are likely to mimic or model demonstrated behaviors based on perceptions of risks or rewards involved. From a public health perspective, this "see-and-do" chain of events is especially troubling when it involves teenage audiences' exposure to media portrayals of rewards for risky activities like using drugs, alcohol, or nicotine; overeating; sexual intercourse; and interpersonal violence. Researchers at the Annenberg Adolescent Risk Communication Institute (ARCI) code behaviors associated with major health problems that are portrayed in popular media . This grant provides support for a co-branded open source Web site on alternative risk behavior. The ARCI/RWJF Web site will house a publicly accessible database with standardized codes that could be used for content analyses and advocacy purposes. Just as journalists and political scientists continue to find Annenberg's www.FactCheck.org to be useful in checking claims made in political advertisements since the 2004 presidential election, it is expected that this new site will be increasingly cited in research and public health policy literature.